Showing posts with label dumplings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dumplings. Show all posts

Friday, September 28, 2018

Top 10 Dumplings Served in Los Angeles





I love all kinds of dumplings. Boiled. Fried. Steamed. Oily. Slippery. You named it!

Lists of Top 10 Dumplings for Los Angeles is in order. There should plenty to choose from. Not all of them belongs in the same region at Monterrey Park. In fact, you'll find it interesting to know, most are moving towards east on this list.

Pretty much you can treated this scrumptious feigns as a meal itself, an appetizer for some, or anytime snack for most people if you can burn those carbs.

Here is the fun fact: You don't necessary needs meat to put it into dumplings. Nor does it needs to be savory. So a lot of people have precognition in thinking it needs to be in rice wraps as well.

To come with this list, I'll keep this simple. It will be strictly dumplings. Not super sized baos (as in big donut buns size) or pie. I will exclude any shu-mai or anything like rice noodle dishes from dim sum items. As always, keeping it simple with hidden spots as the bigger plus.


Kingburg Kitchen
715 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

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San Gabriel is awash with waves of possibilities for dumplings galore. Pretty much every street corner has a dumpling restaurant at their plaza. Kingburg Kitchen is pretty much known for two types of dishes: their jiaozi (pan fried dumplings) and Shen Jiang Bao (pan fried juicy buns). Think of crispy brown bottom and juicy soup on the inside.

There's something about this little bite size starter perfect for their beef noodle soup as well. It's glorious coming here when you know you can ordered everything from pork to vegetarian version, those will still come out perfect.



Ding's Garden
18922 Gale Ave
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

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There are so many version of this place. Too many rumors and innuendos to list here. Pretty much was that there was an original one on Valley Blvd in San Gabriel. After an ugly divorce mess, the business was sold. Then a few pops up in Pasadena, Irvine and here in Rowland Heights. I'll keep this simple in that Rowland Heights location does better on the potstickers variety which is like the jiaozi I posted above.

Ding's is also known for their cold dish appetizers on the menu and their fabulous beef noodle soup. What sets apart from the other locations of Ding's was their pan fried version of their dumplings. They do wonders on the boiled versions as well.



Q Noodle House
18930 Gale Ave
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

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Short distance walk in the same plaza as Ding's Garden is this very low key Noodle house that serves up some of the best boiled dumplings you can find. The fish dumplings with right amount of vinegar and soy sauce can liven these simple, but yet delicious treats. Don't let the pungent fish smell fool you, it's an absolute delight.

Q Noodle House is situated in a very popular plaza that includes the best pho place in town (Pho Rowland), Two popular Korean joints (Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong and Sun Nuong Dan), tourist trap of Boiling Crab, an extremely popular Sichuan hot pot (Lameizi) and the previously mentioned Ding's Garden. Be warned: it's crazy traffic jam on Friday nights.



Mama's Lu
153 Garvey Avenue
Monterrey Park, CA 91755

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I wrote about this place in one of my earliest blog post. This place still holds the standard for most dishes for the Shanghai cuisine. It used to be very popular for the locals, but then you know... first the blogs, then the media hype (most notably Jonathan Gold) and now social media from the youngsters. It can get crazy in here with long wait for dinner.

Their specialty is the juicy soup dumplings we like to call Xiao Long Bao (XLB). Its hint of a sweet taste often gets imitated it by many other competitors around town. However, I would like to showcase their boiled dumplings as that tends to be underrepresented in their establishments.

This flagship was so successful, it sprang a new shop down the street. In a weird site note, the Mama is run by the daughter, while the mom runs a successful supplier operation of dumplings, xlbs, and other pre-packaged dishes. It gotten so successful, family opened up a new front in south OC called Paper Lantern.



101 Noodle Express
1408 E Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801

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For the very longest time, this place rivals Mama's Lu as the place to go for all Shanghai related cuisine in the hotbed of Asian cuisine. Probably less than 5-10 minutes drive for one. Pretty much a slam dunk if you need something fulfilling. This place get the same kind of hype from the social media crowd as Mama's for the same exact dishes. So be warned when you find out there's a big wait for those dumplings and beef roll. Oh, one big difference: CASH ONLY.




New Golden City
1015 Nogales St #128
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

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They just got featured last week for top chicken dishes place and now they're back in this dumpling rendition. This place has been around for quite awhile since the golden days of the 90s when Rowland Heights was awash with newly arrivals from Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants. Along with the Supreme Dragon Restaurant (old school colleagues will remembered this beloved shuttered place) was the go to place for dumplings. The only drawback is the tight parking spaces in the plaza that houses Ranch 99 supermarket.

If you can get over this small mishap, you'll enjoyed many of the fine Chinese dishes that many people come to love. The traffic is rough in this area because of road construction since 4 years ago for tunnel road they will eventually finish, but it's worth the trek for this surround area.



Hwang To Kil HTK
18732 Colima Rd
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

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Whoa! A Korean restaurant entry. You probably never get to see that happened, but it's only right when there's a place like this only happens once in a while. Korean Military Stew which was popular among ex-patriots of the cold war days from our Southeast Asian neighbors. A dish that incorporate rationed food such as cheese, sausage and spam into soup. This restaurant serves some of the best stew and spicy noodles soup you'll find in this area if you don't wish to travel to hectic Koreatown.

Don't sleep on their version of kimchi dumplings, which incorporate the salted and fermented vegetable into pork dumplings. It's already popular in commingled with fried rice, but with the steamed dumplings and a bit panned, these are simply superb.



Pine and Crane
1521 Griffith Park Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

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Hipsters can rejoice! There is a place for them on the eastside (sensitive topic for region gatekeepers). This well known, uber popular Taiwanese influenced housed some of the more aesthetics pleasing dishes for the uninitiated. As many are still not treating Taiwanese dishes as a finer cuisine until this place opened up in a busy stretch facing Sunset Blvd.

The Chili won tons are the popular side dish many would get to accompany with their beef rolls or something less challenging to be nibble. Without a doubt, this was an mistaken item on their menu. Whenever I showed this photo, people knew where these won tons are from. Go figure!



Little Shanghai Restaurant
18457 Colima Road
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

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Unusual, but not really. This tiny little restaurant is a very old food court that probably seen more turnovers than a French bistro on Melrose Ave or Third Street on the westside of LA. The only constant in that fool hall (we called that now?) is this Shanghai restaurant that outlast most take out joints in this sleepy hallow of a plaza.

Extremely popular for their pan fried dumplings over the juicy soup version. I probably would choose Mama's for that version. If you ever settled into this table service corner spot (the only one in that food hall that does not have a stall, but an open space), go for their dan dan mein as well.



Tasty Noodle House
1611A Azusa Avenue
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

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This place was bestowed upon me because of the fact I had to work late one night. My former boss who at the time decided to treat me to a dinner because I needed to finish some project. Apparently this hybrid of a Shanghai/Taiwanese/Northern Chinese cuisine place was a popular spot among the vast residents of east SGV. I didn't know how popular until I realized most chose this over another popular place in this plaza (checked it on Yelp, it got more reviews for that rival).

Regardless in the lack of exposure, I'm pretty certain most residents is keeping this place on the down-low for their Shen Jiang Bao (pan fried) and many vast array of fried rice and fried noodle dishes. It's probably a good idea in not letting out-of-towners on this hot tidbit. 

Friday, March 23, 2018

The Carb Delights of Beijing Pie House






Is there such a thing as too much carbs?

You'll probably throw your inhibitions away once you get a load of these delicious meat pies we're about to see. It's just a doughboy's heaven from here on out.

I was once introduced to this nondescript corner restaurant in San Gabriel Valley because of my heavy craving for dumplings. One of my associate suggested a place known for Chinese meat pies that is beef stuffed in a round flat circle shaped like a table coasters.


The famous Beijing Meat Pie

Imagine if you will of an Irish Pot pie (usually lamb) or maybe one of those British Chicken pie that are much more well known to the masses, but the Chinese beef version has been around for ages. Getting the Northern Chinese fare into general public might be a bit tad hard because of the public oppression towards carbs these days and competition against the popular xiao long baos (Shanghai's soup dumplings) that is a better seller these days.


Beef Green Onion Pancake

If you are ever hanker for this... watch out! Those fillings inside are like soup dumplings as well. Even the green onion cake version sliced perfectly can be tempting to any carb lover's dreams.

The minimalist restaurant has been very popular with the fans of Chinese dumplings for a long time as I have remembered it. It used to be on the annual list of best restaurants of many dining critic here in LA... all because of that one dish.

Make sure you get some walking exercise after the meal because this carb overload is worth that sacrifice.

Beijing Pie House
846 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755

Beijing Pie House Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Thursday, February 5, 2009

United Nation's Lunch @ Mas' Islamic Chinese Restaurant (Anaheim)


One of my former co-worker loves to brag about how good Islamic Chinese Restaurant in San Gabriel is. He loves to recount the stories to me on how good the dishes was and how enjoyable those onion cakes was going to be if he ever takes me there.

Guess what? He quit his job on the day before he was suppose to take me there! Of course, I have never heard from the guy again.

So, it took a different set of people to figure where else we can find the place until my boss told me that the original owner of the San Gabriel location had opened up a new one in Anaheim. Excited, I decided to hit up the place on that very same day.

The original owner of the old San Gabriel location have sold that restaurant to a new ownership which kept most of the famed menu items. Through a grapevine, it was told that he got bored from his retirement and decided to open up a new restaurant in Orange County. Of course I have never tasted the old glory days of San Gabriel location and I had avoided the new ownership's staff, so I don't have any comparison of which was better or noticed any differences.

When I was about to head out to this restaurant, an advice was given to look for a golden dome on a temple. You can't miss that if you were driving at day time. As we walked in, you will notice that a fountain in the lobby that was nicely built right in front of the dining room. It was actually a beautiful sight right before you were going to be seated to your table.


You will definitely noticed that Arab, Pakistani, and Chinese would all congregate under the same roof for meal as this place will bring back memories of Beijing's Muslim Quarters for many people. It was something of a United Nation for me to see that a common taste in food can bring everyone together.

A little quick background to this Northern style Chinese cuisine before I arrived. I studied up that the Northerners included many of the noodle dishes as their specialty. Instead of being served with steamed rice, many of the Islamic Chinese food would include noodles, steamed bread, or pancake to go along with your main dishes.

With that in mind, we decided to get the big sesame green onion cake as our bread for our meal. We can still get the steamed rice if we want if we chooses. The general conscious was that we can used the onion cake and rolled up certain items like a falafel or burrito. Neat idea at the time, but I just decided to use it as a complimentary bread instead using it as a wrap.


Sesame Green Onion Cake

The Northern cuisine cooking style tends to be either Stir-frying, pan-frying, braising, or barbecuing. The big protein in the diet are the beef and lamb, which you will definitely noticed that no pork were being served in this menu.

As Chinese we all can be, we still wanted something of a tofu or bean curd. So we decided on the shredded spicy beef with bean curd. It was not as spicy as the name sound. This dish was more along the line of being spicy with the red pepper, so it won't burned your taste-bud with unnecessary condiments added on to the beef. Thank goodness I can avoid the spiciness by not picking up the chili pepper and still savor the taste of the beef.

Shredded Beef With Bean Curd

For the big attraction, we wanted to see how different the dumplings that was served here compared to the Shanghai counterparts. The steamed dumplings was a bit doughy, but it retains the flavor and juice inside. Each of those dumplings were on the big mouthful size, rather than the usual bite size you get in a Shanghai restaurant. See the pictures below on the inside of the dumplings.

Steamed Beef Dumplings (Remembered..no pork)

So far we were enjoying our meal as we commenting on how different the style of cooking was compared to what we had at Macau Street in Monterey Park (RIP). Then one of our buddy, wanted to order a shrimp with cashew nuts. It looked like a typical slippery shrimp that other restaurants usually can easily get. That was a ho hum dish that was nothing special.

Shrimp with Cashew Nuts

The bigger loser in the whole group of meal we had were the vegetarian dishes. We ordered a tofu with vegetables that was slightly undercooked. What's worse, it was also very bland as well and not really appealing to look at. Once we took a few took a few bite of it, we pretty ignored that dish for the rest of the meal. My buddy's wife also wanted to get the mixed vegetables. Even that was a clanker because no one wanted to get a 2nd bite when it lacked any flavor.

Tofu With Vegetables

Mixed Vegetables

The service was excellent throughout the whole meal. They seemed to have a 12 table top round table on the other side of the room that can be reserved for banquets. It was something that we were thinking of having for our company dinner next time as a suggestion down the road.

Creamy & Crab Corn Soup

The total bill came out to be $78 (before tips) for five dishes, one soup, and one order of sesame green onion cake. All of the dishes have pictured above and you will see that it was overwhelming for four people. Too much and plenty of leftovers to take home.

When I come back next time, I'm skipping the silly shrimp dish and both of the awful veggie plates. Definitely will get the stir fried beef or lamb and get the big sesame green onion cake to go along with it. Try to remember the pancake is the substitute for rice in that type of cuisine. Those will be an easy hearty meal for your enjoyment of a Chinese Islamic meal.
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I have one question based on observations I have noticed. If anyone ever decides to come here, please tell why it was customary for men to sit on one side of table and women to sit on the other side? That was a mystery to me throughout the whole meal.

Mas Chinese Islamic Restaurant
601 E Orangethorpe Ave
Anaheim, CA 92801
(714) 446-9553

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Mas' Islamic Chinese on Urbanspoon

Friday, January 30, 2009

If Only These Walls Can Talk @ Dean Sin World (Monterey Park)


They just took off the bakery sign and hastily put up a banner

Before you take a bite of that dumpling you just ordered in a tea house or a local Shanghai eatery, ask yourself this one question: Are these dumplings made by Dean Sin World? Chances are, it might be.

Dean Sin World comes to us at a time when dumpling houses are exploding everywhere in SGV as it seems. Dumplings were the rage in 2006 as the must get comfort food and was one of the most popular take out items that can rival a Taco Bell chalupa. Little did we know, Dean Sin World actually was here in the old days (as in a few years ago), but we just didn't know it.

Before starting up this restaurant, two sisters decided to go into wholesale business selling dumplings and other small snacks to supermarkets, bakeries, and other snack eateries places. Chances are, you might see some small items like their sesame cake being repackaged with labels of the proprietor's own brand. These two sisters also make their signature dumplings in huge packs for restaurants across SGV.

Think about it for a moment, it's not the boiling of these dumplings that are hard, it's the wrapping of each and every single one of these dumplings that will take so much time. Not too many places would take that much effort and energy into make dumplings from scratch.

The hard work effort finally paid off for them to open up a small place on Garvey Avenue on the same plaza as Giang Nan. The place is still going through *cough* renovations *cough*, but it's a work in progress to get the places more ready for a mini cafe experience.


Chinese menu on the wall

Barebone with almost non-existent decor and no ambiance of any kind to speak of, at least we were thrilled that most of the dumplings and four choices of noodle cost less than $5. We knew that we can eat a lot for cheap and that's how exactly what me and my pal Danny did that night.

To start off, we ordered a lotus sesame cake that only dinged us for a dollar each. Lao Bang Nian (English translation: old boss lady) gave us each a cup of complimentary soy bean milk to go along with this delicious starter.


Sesame Lotus cake ($1 each) with Hot Soy Bean Milk

The signature items were the juicy pork dumplings and their home made boiled dumplings are the specialty, we decided to divide and conquered to ordered one boiled pork dumpling with leaks to start off, then getting a bowl of noodle for a main course with the juicy soup dumplings to cap our night.

The boiled pork dumplings with leaks are very delicious when you dipped it in a chili sauce. I don't think dumplings have any kind of stink like some of these pork with leaks at other places would exhibit. They pretty much keep ingredients simple and fresh so that your taste buds won't get ruined by that weird after taste.


Boiled Pork Dumplings with Leaks ($4.25)

The Xiao Long Bao (Juicy Soup pork dumpling) were wrapped very well without breaking apart or having the soup leaked through before you picked it up with the chopsticks. I also enjoyed the fact there were plenty of soup inside the bao when it was piping hot. Give them credit for making it hot and fresh without being over cook which would lead to dryness on both the skin and lack of soup.


Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Juicy Pork Soup Dumplings) - $4.85

Before the noodle came out, we also ordered a pan fried baos. Regretfully they ran out of this item as it was sold out right before we came in. They gave us an option of replacing it with goyza (pan fried dumplings aka potstickers), but we politely declined. To make it up to us for the oversight, Lao Bang Nian gave me and friend Danny a bowl of Wine Blew. It's a bowl of sesame and rice bowl in a wine soup. You have to get a taste of this because it has a small hint of wine aroma, but when you take a sip of the soup, I thought for a moment I was getting a rice ball in a sake. It has a sour flavor mixed in with a bit of sugar in the soup.

The rice was fermented for a brief time and it extract the smell of wine. Think of stinky tofu from soy and you get the same idea for wine brew. You are not going to get a sake because ti's still need to be distilled, but this obviously will get still get a texture taste of wine in this fermented rice in this soup. Very offbeat and very cleansing right before our noodle soup.


Wine Brew ($2.75)

To end the night, our shredded pork egg noodle with mustard green was not bad at all. I think our original thought of sticking with the dumplings at this place should have been follow through. Since the dumplings were the specialty of this place, it would been wiser to order a different type of dumplings, but I guess we just wanted to see if the noodle was any good here. Next time, we can figure that out.


Shredded Pork Egg Noodle with Mustard Green ($4.50)

Overall, we did have a very good meal where everything came out to be less than $17 (before tips). It was probably the bargain of the century for two people that were ready to pig out. The service was very good and we even get to share some stories of our foodie adventure with a couple that was sitting next to us.

We were talking about places that we have visited in SGV and compared notes on where else to go for certain cuisines. Good ol' Lao Bang Nian shared us some of her stories as well and told us about the deeds regarding the businesses in all parts of SGV. Right before we left, we all complimented on how we love her dumplings and have made comparisons to others. She then let us know on a little bombshell: some of those places served her dumplings.

The sisters are still in the wholesale business of selling dumplings to restaurants. When some of the names of popular tea house chains and a few of the well known Shanghai restaurants have all served her dumplings, that's when my jaw had dropped. It's one thing to have your innocence shattered, it's another to have been told there was no Santa Claus. One of those place she mentioned of serving her dumplings was a well known place I have frequented before.

So before you take that bite of the dumpling you have just ordered, ask yourself that one question: did you just ordered a Dean Sin World dumpling? If so, why not come here and ordered here?

Dean Sin World
306 N Garfield Ave #2
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 571-0636

Grade:

Dean Sin World on Urbanspoon

Dean Sin World in Los Angeles

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Found A Better Dumpling Alternative @ Kingburg Kitchen (San Gabriel)


eff'd the Noodle House!!

Some people want to remember the famous rally cries of "Remember the Alamo" or if you grew up in the 80's with N.W.A., you'll distinctly remembered "Fu*k da Police!".

For me, it was the bland, dull taste of some steamed buns and dumplings that made me cried out "eff'd the Noodle House!!".

For some time, I had been looking out for another made-to-order buns & dumpling places, but with a lot better results. This place along with Quiang Diao Bread Food were my next stops to wash away the dreaded taste of buns from the Noodle House.

The Kingburg Kitchen to my surprise had been opened for business at almost one year, yet I didn't heard about them until recently. I guess they flew under the radar because of being over shadowed by Luscious Dumplings and Golden Deli from nearby plazas. This place does have the look of a seafood shack or maybe an Italian restaurant due to a fantastic looking ceiling above that reminded me of a poorer version of Sistine Chapel.

The greatest joy I can ever take at any restaurants was that prices are cheap, yet the value of the item exceed the price. Yes sir, this place was cheap. Uber cheap!

Someone posted the menu on the profile where you can read that for $7, you can get the choice of noodles plus 5 juicy dumplings for your combo meal. Most of the time, people are intimidated from ordering a plate of dumplings because ten units would be too much. By only getting a sampling order of dumplings with a bowl of noodle is quite awesome. It's practically getting a bowl of noodle and pay 50 cents extra to getting dumplings. This is an awesome bargain you must partake.

Boiled Pork Celery Dumplings

There are four different types of noodles for you can order from for your combo. One which was the knife cut noodle (skinny thin noodle), dan dan mein (spicy pole noodle), chicken mushroom noodle soup , and the ever popular spicy beef noodle soup .

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

For once, I was happy that a place that serve noodles is good at something they were suppose to do. The noodle and the broth was in much better form and smoother texture. Not too salty for me on this front and not too spicy because of chili. This was done just right.

Chicken Noodle Soup

The biggest praise I will give them where the Noodle House failed miserably was for their buns. Check these beauties out. One great thing was that the dough wasn't too thick and it still retained the juice when you took a bite of it. The pan fried ones are much quicker to made than the steamed ones. I highly suggest getting the pork, cucumber, and shrimp buns as those suckers disappeared within minutes.


Fried Pork Buns

The fried onion cake is not as big compared to the other restaurants, but the crispy cake is still a good starter before your meal.


Fried Green Onion Cake

All of the dishes are priced reasonably well as you will get a satisfactory full meal that will cost less than $10 before tips. I would strongly consider getting their noodle & dumplings combo with a side order of their steam or pan fried buns.

Make sure you placed the buns early if you wish to make an additional purchase as they can take a good 15-20 minutes to make these buns. Considering it's only a two worker operating the kitchen at this restaurant.

This is one of the better hidden restaurant in Las Tunas Dr. Skip over the over-hyped Luscious Dumplings and come here instead for a full satisfy meal. Think of this catchphrase when you are craving for some baoz (buns).... eff'd The Noodle House!!


Kingburg Kitchen
715 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 282-2386

Grade:

Kingburg Kitchen on Urbanspoon

Kingburg Kitchen in Los Angeles

Friday, January 2, 2009

Feel Like a Home Cook Meal @ Qing Dao Bread Food (Monterey Park)

A few months ago, I had encountered a dumpling disaster at the much hyped place on Garvey Avenue that was wrongfully named "Noodle House". I decided a few places around the neighborhood in hoping to rectify that boiling dumpling mishap adventure. Tried out Mama's Lu that was a few street down, Dumpling House up in Arcadia, even the new location of Din Tai Fung across the street from Dumpling House.

I always skipped Qing Dao Bread Food that was across the street from Dim Sum Express on Garfield Ave because I always thought it was a bakery. I stopped in by chance because of the closing of Dean Sin World (another dumpling place that might be closed for good if they do not open this month after closing already for two months due to an unannounced "vacation".) on that particular day.

The first time I had tried here was to order a standard neou rou mein (beef noodle soup) and a boiled pork with leek dumplings. To be quite honest, I didn't really have an appreciation for this place the first time around. Their menu was very limited and I had probably counted about 20 various dishes ranging from small cold dishes to a couple of noodle and two dumplings dishes each. Heck, I conquered half of the noodle menu by ordering the beef noodle soup on just one trip.


Beef Noodle Soup

The noodle was a thicker hand pulled version which I usually liked. I didn't have any qualms about coming here the first time around. It was okay at best with not really anything to stand out. The pork with leeks dumplings were good and I did put in an order of cold dish of bean curd with pepper. That was not bad at all without too much of seasoning or oil. I approved of that dish wholeheartedly.


bean curd with pepper

A few months later, I read somewhere on Chowhound that some users suggested going here for sole fish dumplings. It intrigued me a little bit because I had it at Dumpling 10053 and totally hated it. I swore off from Din Tai Fung also as it was nasty the other night when I ordered it. So with that in mind, I was hoping this place might cured my distaste for the sole fish dumplings.

So on a slow weeknight, I revisited this place for that fish dumplings on their menu. With some decent snooping by peeking over the tall portable wall that was surrounding the kitchen, I do think that they made their own dumplings every day. It's not made when it is ordered, but it was fresh enough when they boiled it in their hot pot. Too bad they don't served pan fried items or steamed their dumplings.

This time around I decided to complete noodle menu by ordering their pork chop noodle soup. Here is an interesting catch, they decided to use a thinner koteri noodle for their pork chop soup. As I pointed out, they used a thicker hand pulled noodle for their beef soup version which I found it to be average.

My perception change drastically when I had their thin string like noodle on their pork chop soup which was fantastic. I didn't care for their pork chop or that particular broth. That led me to think if I could request them to give me the beef soup with the thinner koteri noodle on the same bowl, I would have a much more enjoyable meal.


pork chop noodle soup

For their boiled fish dumplings, I did enjoyed it immensely at this location. I was thinking that the satisfaction probably was contributed to the homemade sauce they provided for the dumplings. Their special sauce added a nice sweeter taste to it than the soy sauce or chili that is on the table. I can't really put my finger on that, but the fish dumpling didn't have a bad salty taste like I had at Dumplings 10053.


Boiled Dumplings with special homemade sauce

Again, their cold dish was a winner at for the night. This time around, I have ordered a cold slices of beef tongue. It was not too dry and was very satisfying as a cheap appetizer. I just wished their main courses can match the starters.


Beef Tongue

Overall, my impression was to give a huge thumbs up for their cold dish items. A so so grade for the noodle soup dish and the grade will improve if I can mix n' match next time with the appropriate noodle to go along with the preferred soup choice. The dumplings are good enough to get a passing grade which in a side by side comparison of the boiled dumplings are much better than the Noodle House three blocks away (please order only steamed dumplings at the Noodle House).

If you are looking for a cheap place that reminds you of home cooked meals, then this place would fit the bill for the cheap eats. For a similar comparison, Kam Hong Garden would be my choice for the same exact items order. However, I would give this underrated hole in the wall a try if the other popular Garvey Ave places are busy.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 N Garfield Ave Ste G
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 312-6978

Grade:

Qing Dao Bread Food on Urbanspoon